Wee Eck

That sounds like Tom was ready to ride for Glasgow in 2024 and disappointed to be dropped. Maybe end up in Edinburgh if rumours of one of Edinburgh’s 2023 riders moving to Glasgow are true?

You losing your touch or your sources, Skidder?

Leicester again showing tonight they can’t hold meetings in October. Give the title to Oxford

My recollection is that Stewart was ill (in hospital?) when the 2011 KO Cup final was raced so Glasgow’s obliteration at Newport wasn’t down to him.

It won’t be one league and Dickson has already said he’s carrying on with Leicester.

Glasgow race in Scotland. And Glasgow isn’t even the wettest place in Scotland. The wettest place in UK is in Wales.

Max rode at Toruń with a broken wrist. It is alleged he was considering pulling out of the meeting but was informed that would jeopardise his chance of getting a wild card. Fat good that did him. He must be severely irritated by the politics of the organisers including a 28 year old Latvian and a 30 year old German ahead of him. 9th in the World is not good enough for the GPs it seems.

Tony Olson and the rest of the FIM Jury at Vojens. in my view, Zmarzlik’s team we’re trying to be smart, knowingly using the wrong race suit as part of an arrangement to promote one of his sponsors. They perhaps even allowed for the possibility of a fine and had that covered by the sponsor. What they didn’t expect was for the full penalty open to FIM to be imposed. The Zmarzlik team travels with multiple race suits for GPs. All of them comply with the rules. So why was one brought that didn’t?

The murmuring is that FIM will hold firm on excluding the Russians but, if they don’t, then your logic is sound. Sayfutdinov is arguably better but you can’t have him in without Laguta. If these two are in then I expect Australia and GB to be reduced to 2 giving 3 poles, 3 Danes, 2 each for Australia, GB and Russia, and I each from Slovakia, Sweden and Czechia. In truth, that would be pretty close to the best 15 in the world right now. It’s pretty poor, isn’t it? The sport needs more riders like Crump, Pedersen, Hancock and Rickarddon but I don’t see any on the horizon.

You seem to have a problem with this but I’m not sure why. The guy made a mistake, the mistake was spotted and action taken before any harm was done. This was nothing like “a rider….(who) had committed a very dangerous offence”. It wasn’t an offence, simply an error which, thank goodness, was spotted and resolved. No doubt he’ll receive a reprimand from SCB and I doubt will ever repeat the mistake.

I think that’s a fair comment. I like @lbwas he’s just having a laugh - and an occasional flat white - but others do come across as arrogant. The problem is Poole keep winning so the much hoped for downfalls just don’t seem to happen. Maybe this year?

Before you get too twisted up on this, Poole have a long history of being well supported and well funded. The exception was when Reg Fearman seems to have run it into the ground then run off with Middlo’s testimonial money. So, perhaps “always” was a bit much but how about “nearly always”? There’s not many teams that can claim that

Shocking, isn’t it? They’ve even wormed their way into this one…..

Don’t worry. They’ll get themselves banned again soon enough.

PZM have said that, as neither Artem nor Tai were tested before during or after the meeting, there is now nothing for POLADA to find. Wrocław have clarified the treatments received as being anaesthetics rather than banned pain killers. So the much avowed integrity of Polish speedway is maintained.

I think the team was built in the expectation that Craig Cook “coming home” was a master stroke. But, for once, Glasgow outsmarted Edinburgh in letting Craig go. Picko started well but has not recovered his form after injury. Likewise Lasse. Paco will always be a hot and cold rider. Edinburgh’s loyalty to him is like Glasgow’s was to Lee Dicken. Always hopeful, always disappointed. Kyle Bickley was another strange choice. Not one team in five or is it six seasons has seen the results that Kyle looked like he would deliver when he was 15. It’s not that long since Edinburgh put together exciting and successful teams by bringing in young talented riders who turned into stars but the magic seems to have gone. Although consistency in promotions is to be applauded, there always comes a time when the old guard need to stand to one side and let the next generation take over. Glasgow have done it with Peter Facenna taking over from Gerry, Poole are doing it with Dan and Matt. Is there anyone at Edinburgh not just able to step into old man’s shoes but who the old men would be willing to stand aside for?

Do the mini leagues not count as play offs? I see Sedgmennwas guesting for Redcar this afternoon and for Monarchs tonight. Hopefully, he’ll ride better tonight than he did this afternoon.

Top of the league and, so far, top of the mini league despite a sluggish start at home, an enforced late change of team manager and the loss of a rider in heat one. Edinburgh now become the next potential banana skin for Shovlar to worry about

Had Cook performed as hoped, then Edinburgh were a decent team. And it was clearly too much of a temptation to sign him after Glasgow got rid. But the current Glasgow owners are no mugs and they knew that there would be two possible out-comes: either Cook would regain his past form in which case they’d only have to face him a couple of times at Ashfield (the less likely out-turn) or he’d continue his downward spiral. Either way, Glasgow were shrewder than Edinburgh for once. With Cook returning to form, the Monarchs looked decent but injuries to Pickering and Fredrikden hit them hard - so hard they didn’t recover.- and then Cook’s problems did for them. On the assumption that they have a track in 2024, they have the chance to come back stronger especially if they hang on to Picko, Lasse and Borke. But maybe it’s time to bring some younger promoters in to join the two auld guys? There’s a point where old age negates experience.

How early can you use a t/s?

Are you sure he earns more money riding Polish Ekstraliga? With prize money plus individual sponsorships - which are strictly limited in the Polish Ekstraliga - BK earns in excess of £50k for a GP win. By the way, I’m told that none of the usual FIM top brass, including Armando Castagna, were present last night. Strange when the world championship would probably have been decided had the champion-elect not been excluded from the meeting.

I don’t understand the pile on to Chris Holder. He was signed on just over 7 and averaged 7.5 over the two legs. If fingers need to be pointed they should be pointed on whoever was making team change decisions at Sheffield. I sudiect someone thought it was smart to bring Tai in when waiting for Jack to return would have made sense. A bit like the gut reaction changes at Leicester….. Anyway, well done Ipswich who seem to be hitting form at exactly the right time

Difficult to predict - on paper, Glasgow are a far stronger 1-4 who should hit 40 between then leaving r/r and the reserves to get 6. The Tigers - pre-Tarasenko - have shown weaknesses away from home but maybe the Russian will overcome the Cami factor? My predictions? Maybe 55-35 home win, 35-55 home loss, or 48-42 home win. I told you I found it difficult to predict

He’d not have been short of guest bookings though